DonTom
Member
But I never bought one, so you cannot blame me for it becoming the norm these days.
-Don- Reno, NV
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A FLAT should NOT be this difficult!
- Thread starter Haymaker
- Start date
-Don- Reno, NV
I think the OP had a miserable experience, and I'm not offended that he expressed his concerns. I would have been pretty upset, especially carrying a jack down the street fr those reasons. It would have been nice if Tesla automatically provided pucks, and threw in the fix a flat kit, but they are not at fault. They don't provide car wax and other stuff either.
Just as an owner should check tread wear, and that sort of thing, I bought pucks, a small air compressor, and a tire plug kit, and may keep the 1.5 ton jack I got at Harbor Freight in the trunk for long trips. Back to the OP's pain, being a disabled senior, IF I had a flat at night, in the rain or snow, and had to do all this myself, I'd want to make a phone call, and have someone come fix it within an hour or two. Despite my condition, I could probably attempt the fix, but if the sidewall was damaged (pothole ?) you risk the Tesla paranoia these shops have.
I'd rather hear about this experience than go through it myself, and I realize I'm not as prepared as I could be, so my opinion is go easy on the OP, but that's just my opinion. I think everyone pretty much knew that when a million Teslas hit the road, there would be some inexperienced owners. Anyone recommending run flat tires, and any particular brand ? Model 3, original 18 inch Aeros. I'll check over in the aftermarket tires and wheels department. Sorry to occupy 483 bytes of TMC disk space, but I just had compassion for his story.
Just as an owner should check tread wear, and that sort of thing, I bought pucks, a small air compressor, and a tire plug kit, and may keep the 1.5 ton jack I got at Harbor Freight in the trunk for long trips. Back to the OP's pain, being a disabled senior, IF I had a flat at night, in the rain or snow, and had to do all this myself, I'd want to make a phone call, and have someone come fix it within an hour or two. Despite my condition, I could probably attempt the fix, but if the sidewall was damaged (pothole ?) you risk the Tesla paranoia these shops have.
I'd rather hear about this experience than go through it myself, and I realize I'm not as prepared as I could be, so my opinion is go easy on the OP, but that's just my opinion. I think everyone pretty much knew that when a million Teslas hit the road, there would be some inexperienced owners. Anyone recommending run flat tires, and any particular brand ? Model 3, original 18 inch Aeros. I'll check over in the aftermarket tires and wheels department. Sorry to occupy 483 bytes of TMC disk space, but I just had compassion for his story.
Where do you put that? Does it take up most of the trunk?
Spare gotta be a mandatory equipment or at least specs gotta be adjusted for it lacking. Like a big red dot or empty checkbox or something. A car spec would look better (more storage, less weight) if there are no spare but the absence or presence of a spare is not even described.
stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
Some Newer Cars Are Missing a Spare Tire
https://www.cars.com/articles/got-a-spare-not-on-these-cars-1420697605296/
About a third of cars don't have spares. Even when automakers offer complementary roadside assistance (which Tesla does also under warranty) it's cheaper for the automaker to leave out the spare, especially giving it improves their efficiency ratings. They definitely are not mandatory or mentioned, as increasingly people are relying on roadside assistance anyways (probably over a majority of drivers don't even know how to change out their tire).
Max_G
Everything needs to be defined :)
Don't be too hard on yourself.
Firstly, you are right: it should not be hard at all to replace a tire.
Secondly, you dealt with uninformed people, hence, do not expect a proper response or outcome.
So, why take blame or blame Tesla for it?
The blame lies with the shonks from those tire places.
They either object to the EV idea as a whole, or are afraid of having their pant caught in a law suit should anything go wrong, hence, indemnify themselves by not taking on the work.
I can only speculate why Tesla has the four holes for the lift locations. My take is, with the proper pucks plugged in (the proper pucks have an O-ring to hold the puck in place), the guess work is taken out of the lift location. You can easily walsk around the car and ajust the hoist arms to the proper location. Then lift the car and all is sweet.
I got my M3 last Friday, 187km (~110mi) on it and already ordered a set of four pucks, which I will carry in the rear trunk. A bugger-all cost, to alleviate any problems. In fact I like these, as I had a tire place lifting my Mercedes S350 at the wrong places causing 10 grant of damage. Jack points exist on all cars as FAIK, with the only purpose of lifting the car properly and per manufacturers' specifications.
Also, I am driving some 40,000km (25,000mi) per year for years now, and had one flat in ten years; and another one some 20 years ago. At least for me a rare occasion, in order to worry about a spare tire... which is usually in a hard to reach places, but needs the pressure checked and refilled as well (most shops forget to do this), hwy I take care of my tires myself; even after a service I check pressure... haven seen all sorts of non-matching values when getting the car back, from no matter what shop.
The moral of the story is:
a) the pucks are not needed, if the person jacking it knows what they are doing.
b) it is not your fault
c) the tire shops mentioned are the id!ots in this situation.
d) take a deep breath and enjoy the day.
DonTom
Member
It takes up some room, but it's not that big of a deal. You can still put stuff on top of the wheel. IIRC, it's not a full size wheel.
But I think it is this one that I have.
I don't have the wheel cover with mine,
-Don- Reno, NV
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FlatSix911
Porsche 918 Hybrid
This was my problem trying to have a tire rotation but the technician was helpful. I agree this definitely should be discussed when given to the new owner, even used Teslas. Tesla needs to allow their customers to easily talk to customer support. Not go through endless phone algorithms.
FlatSix911
Porsche 918 Hybrid
Amen to that...
You should be able to talk with live customer service and support anytime about a vehicle in this price range. Their app is a waste of time.
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